During Intel's press conference today, we got a brief glimpse into how Intel's smartphones are fairing globally. The noticeable gap, however, was the US. Answering questions during a Q&A session following the Computex keynote, Tom Kilroy, Executive Vice President of Sales said that there was a major reason why it was lacking US carrier support: LTE.

"Absence of LTE is the reason. We can't get ranged by US carriers without LTE, so once we have multi-mode LTE coming to market later this year, we'll have an opportunity to compete in that business."

While we've seen Intel add 4G radios to its Atom processors for global-roaming tablets, there's no news yet of the capability launching on its smartphone designs. Last year, Intel launched a Medfield-powered version of Verizon's RAZR M in Europe and Asia, under the RAZR i branding and with only 3G radios.

ASUS' Fonepad has been making its way around the world with a 1.2GHz Intel Atom Z2420 processor and 16GB of built-in storage, but apparently there's a need for covering one's face with a beefier version. Announced in Taiwan earlier today, the 7-inch tabletphone will be offered with a faster 1.6GHz Z2460 plus 32GB of memory (with microSD expansion as before). This new model will retail for NT$10,900 locally, which works out to be about US$360; whereas the original model will still be available for NT$8,990 or about US$300 (which is, by the way, a tad more expensive than the UK price). We'll let you know when ASUS comes back with more information regarding availability in other regions.

Orange's £200 ($308) San Diego was one of the first Intel-powered Android devices to hit the market. Despite its budget price, it packed a Medfield-based 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU that the company promised would deliver more performance and battery life than its pricier rivals. It almost achieved it too, with benchmarks that stood equal to the Galaxy S III and more than 24-hours of standby life. The problem, was that our reviewer couldn't find a compelling reason to buy one of these over a last-gen Android flagship -- but was that the case for you? If you bought one, how has the ownership experience been, so tell us what did you love, what did you hate and what would you change?

If you're one of those who took the leap into a first wave of Intel-based smartphones like the RAZR i, you're likely the sort to wonder exactly what makes them tick. SemiAccurate certainly does: it just posted some previously inaccessible diagrams that help reveal how Medfield's system-on-a-chip heart, Penwell, is mapped out. As a die shot shows, the Atom core is seemingly the least important part of the design -- the PowerVR SGX 540 graphics, camera processing and input-output interfaces dominate the crowded silicon. Between this dense, all-in-one design and stacking up to 2GB of RAM directly on top, Penwell occupies about 17 percent less space than its Moorestown ancestor and helps explain why we're looking at Atom-powered phones instead of another round of MIDs. We wouldn't get too comfortable with the current generation, though, as Intel is gradually warming up 22-nanometer chips that could make Penwell seem old hat.

Mentions of Intel's Red Ridge tablet platform began cropping up in earnest well over a year ago, but things have been fairly quiet on the Medfield front -- with a few exceptions, of course -- ever since. Now, however, Intel's signaling that it may be ready to pop the cork at CES, as the label you're peering at above just made it through FCC processing earlier today. While there's dreadfully little to go on in the filing, we know that Red Ridge is a Medfield-based tablet platform, with the model shown here tested on a device running Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and capable of handling Bluetooth, NFC and 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi waves. Notably, we're also told that a "production unit" was used, hinting that we could see the commercial version of this mystery machine make its debut in just under a month. Rest assured, we'll be checking every nook and crannie allowed by law once we land in Las Vegas.

Motorola created quite some buzz with its first "Intel inside" Android phone, the RAZR i, back in September, so it's only natural to see the company tapping into the Chinese market with a localized variant. Dubbed the RAZR i MT788, this China Mobile device bears much similarity to its Western sibling on paper: 2GHz Intel Atom Z2480, 4.3-inch 960 x 540 AMOLED display (with Gorilla Glass), eight-megapixel camera, microSD expansion (up to 32GB) and Android Ice Cream Sandwich.

The difference? Well, the chassis is the most obvious one: instead of using the same design as the original RAZR i, the new MT788 looks identical to the MSM8625-powered dual-SIM XT788 on China Telecom. On top of that, the battery is rated at just 1,735mAh instead of the RAZR i's 2,000mAh, and there's just 4GB of built-in memory instead 16GB; but the front-facing camera's bumped up from 0.3 megapixels to 1.3. There's no price just yet, but interested buyers can pick one up in China starting in mid-December. Will the world's largest carrier help Intel take a significant bite out of the mobile phone market? Only time will tell.

If you're getting a serious dose of déjà vu, we're right there with you. The RAZR i is a version of Motorola's Droid RAZR M that's headed to Europe and South America with a few differences. For the most part, though, it's cut from the same Kevlar cloth: you get a 4.3-inch AMOLED screen with qHD (960 x 540) resolution, an 8-megapixel rear camera, a 2,000mAh battery and 5GB of built-in storage -- with a microSD slot for expansion.

So what's different? On the outside, the RAZR i gets a physical, two-stage camera button. It's a welcome addition, but Intel reckons that its 2GHz processor is what you should be concerned with. It's the highest-clocked Medfield processor we've seen yet -- and perhaps more importantly, it's been placed in a core phone-maker's device. We've already come a long way from the Orange-branded San Diego. So how does this compare to the Qualcomm-powered (and LTE-capable) RAZR M? Will this Intel iteration charm us the same way? Join us after the break to find out.Gallery-166372

Motorola's RAZR i has landed on British shores, and is available today from Phones4U. The handset, the first born of a union 'twixt Moto and Intel, skates pretty close to the competition in the performance stakes and promises vastly improved power efficiency. The handset is free to anyone grabbing a plan costing £21.50 or more, while the first 500 to snap up the phone will also get a complimentary pair of MOTOROKR headphones, too.

While the Motorola RAZR i hasn't yet hit stores, when it does, it'll now be able to tap into the Chrome Mobile app, following its latest update. We're putting the Intel-powered Android 4.0 phone through the review wringer right now, but have already noticed the lack of Chrome browser support.

Due to the way Intel x86-based devices run apps, the browser required some adjustments, which are now complete. At the moment, the only existing phone that officially runs Android 4.0 on a Medfield processor is the incoming RAZR i, but now any future Intel smartphones will also get the full Chrome experience -- and Motorola gets to keep its promise of preinstalling the browser on its new devices.

Intel's curious decision to shun the US and release Medfield-powered smartphones in India, China, Russia and the UKmight be because of those countries' underdeveloped levels of LTE. Marketing chief Sumeet Syal told TechCrunch that its current-generation x86 system-on-chip won't support the standard, but a modem solution will arrive at the end of the year -- with production ramping up in 2013. He also let slip to the site that a replacement dual-core platform will arrive shortly, claiming they'll benefit from Intel's hyper threading know-how. Syal said that Santa Clara is "comfortable" with its progress just months after entering the smartphone space but declined to discuss numbers -- for which we'll have to wait for the Q3 earnings call in October to find out how well (or not) Intel's mobile ambitions are going.

Soon after it's unveiling, the Intel-based RAZR i showed up in Clove's listings with a SIM-free price of £342, and now it looks as if a few more outlets are pushing pricing details to the world. Expected to storm the UK in October, the phone should ship to Virgin Media customers for around £23 per month on its Premiere Tariff, while T-Mobilers will be able to score one for £0 to £31 per month depending on the contract. All told, not too shabby for the world's first 2GHz Atom-backed Android phone, and if you're eager to push all of this iPhone 5 stuff aside, at least you know precisely how many quid to save up between now and next month.

Motorola were quick to tell us that we're testing on pre-release RAZR i here -- software updates may arrive before the device does, but these figures below should give you a good estimate at what the 2GHz Intel processor can do. We've pitched it against the US-bound Droid RAZR M, with a capable dual-core Snapdragon S4 clocked at 1.5GHz, and ZTE's Grand X IN, which houses Intel's 1.6MHz Medfield Z2460 and Android ICS.

Motorola Droid RAZR M

Motorola RAZR i

ZTE Grand X IN

Quadrant

4,944

4,125

2,710

Vellamo

2,442

1,906

1,550

SunSpider 0.9.1 (ms)

1,951

1,062

1,355

AnTuTu

6,364

6,175

N/A

GLBenchmark Egypt Offscreen (fps)

56

41

N/A

CF-Bench

9,392

2,973

873

SunSpider: lower scores are better

So what do all these numbers mean? Well, Intel's 2GHz processor is pretty capable. Although the RAZR i only bests the RAZR M on SunSpider browser performance (something that Intel's been focusing on with its mobile hardware), it's a substantial score difference. Otherwise, the Europe-bound RAZR skates pretty close, if behind the RAZR M's benchmarks. There's a hiccup on the CF-Bench score, something that we also noted on the Grand X IN. While both the ZTE and Motorola devices are running Android 4.0, there's still a tangible difference in these early benchmarks -- perhaps testament to both Motorola and Google's proximity and the debut of Intel's faster 2GHz Medfield processor. We'll be testing out those power-saving promises from the chipmaker over the next few days.

While we've seen similar things from the RAZR M already -- and even reviewed it -- we reckoned those 2GHz Intel internals and HSPA-only radio inside the RAZR i (as well as European availability) warranted another tour of the hardware. In summary, there's decently bright, if a little jaggy, 4.3-inch AMOLED screen, with a water resistant coating covering the already hardy Kevlar backing. There's space for microSD expansion, and thanks to that tiny bezel, it's a phone that very happily resided in the palm of our hand. Some Intel assistance has added a new 10-frame burst mode, and also sped up the boot-time of the camera app itself, not forgetting that this RAZR model has a dedicated camera button on the side. We're booting up our benchmark toolkit to assess how Intel's processor fares, but until the final scores are revealed, take a look at our hands-on video after the break.

Motorola's revealed the first smartphone to be borne from its team-up with Intel. Here in London, UK, it's a familiar-looking Android smartphone with an important internal difference. The RAZR i will be running on one of Intel's latest mobile chips (2GHz processor), differentiating it from what we saw from the Google-owned phone-maker a few weeks earlier. Motorola's calling the phone its biggest launch in the UK since the original RAZR.

Motorola's touting the (almost "edge-to-edge") 4.3-inch AMOLED display, 2,000mAh of battery and the same Kevlar coating -- it's water repellent this time. But this event is also about Intel's 2GHz processor inside. The chipmaker says it's optimized the architecture for web browsing, especially for Java-based activities. It's also pushing for power consumption even on processor-intensive activities like gaming -- but we'll have to wait for our own tests to check it out.

The RAZR i also packs a similar 8-megapixel camera and interface to those other new Motorola phones, with under a second start-up to get the camera app running -- we bet that dedicated camera button helps there. Intel made similar promises with the Orange San Diego, but were already intrigued by that Vanilla-looking interface.

NFC is already baked in, with Android Beam taking control of what you need, while its bootloader arrives unlocked. The RAZR i appears to be packing some iteration of Android 4 -- but we're still checking on whether it'll be coming with ICS or the newer Jelly Bean. The phone will arrive in the likes of UK, France, Germany and Brazil -- but no news on whether it'll appear inside North America's borders. In the meantime, you'll find a galley of pics below, plus a press release and publicity video right after the break.

Update: According to retailer Clove.co.uk stock should be arriving (in the UK at least) on October 1st, with a SIM-free price of £342 (about $555).

As one major event wraps, we look forward to what's coming up next: Motorola's Intel announcement. We have a hard time believing we'd see anything besides a smartphone with an Intel chip inside, but the biggest mystery is in what type of phone. Are we going to see something ho-hum, or mind-blowingly awesome? Whatever it is, we think we may have stumbled upon a clue. Motorola's XT890, which has been rumored to be a global RAZR M with a 2GHz CPU and 897 x 540 screen resolution, just wandered through the FCC with AT&T-friendly 2G and 3G radios. There's no hint of LTE here, though the FCC doesn't require OEMs to mention non-US frequencies. The docs, however, indicate that we can expect dual-band WiFi -- no word on NFC, but we'd be very surprised if it didn't make the final cut. The supercharged processor seems almost too good to be true, but we wouldn't offer up any complaints if there is any truth to the idea.

Intel was fast to promise a port of Jelly Bean to Atom-based smartphones. We were left in the dark as to when that port would be ready, but mobile group general manager Mike Bell has put that to rest for PCWorld with news that the Medfield-native Android 4.1 build is both complete and running on Intel workers' devices -- including his. Before dreaming of Google Now searches on an Orange San Diego, though, we'd warn that the usual delays apply. Bell notes that phone makers and the carriers still need go through the lengthy process of signing off on any upgrades. Existing owners will no doubt find it frustrating to be so close and yet so far, although the limbo at least proves that Intel-based hardware isn't being held back relative to its competition; ARM-running phone manufacturers are in the same boat.

If you liked the look of Motorola's recently-announced RAZR M, but reside on the other side of the Atlantic, you might get what you want -- with some internal changes. While Intel and Motorola's London event isn't for another two weeks, according to Pocket-lint, it'll possibly be a Medfield-powered version of Motorola's smallest new addition waiting for British phone-shoppers later this month. The Intel mobile processor would replace the Snapdragon S4 residing in the US version, but the rest of the phone's specification (and dimensions) will remain unchanged. We'll be checking in on this Intel iteration at its launch event on September 18th.

It's a shame when phones feel outdated even as they hit the market, but that's sadly what happened with the original Grand X. However, as you may have heard a few hours ago, the handset's just had a healthy revamp. The spec-bumped version is called the Grand X IN -- it's due out next month and we've just had a chance to run some early benchmarks to test the performance of its vanilla Android 4 OS and new Intel engine. Among a range of improvements, including an 8-megapixel camera with burst mode (instead of the Grand X's dowdy five with no burst) and 1GB of RAM (instead of 512MB), the biggest change is that processor: out goes the old NVIDIA Tegra 2 and in comes a Medfield Z2460. Yep, that's the exact same chip we've seen put to good effect in the Orange San Diego, but how does it fare in this device? Click past the break for a head-to-head comparison with the San Diego, which is cheaper but slightly less well-built (and still running Gingerbread), and the Galaxy Nexus, which costs more but comes with a far better display.

It was all getting a little quiet on Intel-powered smartphone front, but now ZTE's decided to refresh its not-so-elderly Grand X with a Medfield processor and Ice Cream Sandwich. Part of ZTE's showing here at IFA, it's the company's first Android 4.0 device, running on an Atom Z2460. Expect HSPA+ speeds up to 21Mbps, alongside some familiar Grand X specs. This includes a 4.3-inch 960 x 540 screen, while this model now packs an 8-megapixel camera and 1,650mAh battery. ZTE's latest redesign will arrive in Europe at the start of next month -- and we'll be tracking down a model in Berlin later today.

Our calendar in September is starting to fill up rather rapidly, with Motorola asking us to come to its second announcement in a month on September 18th. Intel's co-signed the ticket, with the partnership offering to "take us to the edge" for an exciting announcement from the pair. We're kinda assuming it's got something to do with Santa Clara'smobilechip offerings, since the companies teamed up for a "multi-year, multi-device" partnership in January that promised fresh hardware from the pair arrive in the second half of 2012.

The Intel-powered mobile machine has been slowly picking up pace this year. Now, the chip-maker has signed up a new partner in the form of Russian operator MegaFon. So, it looks like we might see another (and we must say familiar looking) network-branded Android Medfield phone in the form of the MegaFon Mint. The spec-sheet, again, poses no surprises, with the same 1.6GHz Z2460 chip 1GB of RAM, 4-inch screen and 8-megapixel camera only further enhancing the sense of deja vu. What will be unique, however, is the price, which looks set at 17,990 Rubles (about $565), available from today.

ASUS must want its Windows 8 tablet family to move together as one. The Tablet 810 has swung past the FCC just two days after a visit by its younger brother, the Tablet 600. While not what we'd call a stunning revelation, the filing for the 810 (as the TF810C) shows a WiFi-only device with the expected NFC for quick peripheral syncing. The 11.6-inch transforming slate is still devoid of a few key details in spite of having its wireless life laid bare -- namely, if and when it reaches the US. Clearing the approval hurdle, however, leaves few obstacles to ASUS being one of the first out of the gate with an Intel-based Windows 8 tablet after October 26th rolls around.

Intel has revealed that it's working on bringing Jelly Bean to its low-power Atom architecture. In an email to PC World, company rep Suzy Greenberg confirmed the project was ongoing, but didn't offer a timeline as to when the latest flavor of Google's mobile OS would arrive on a device. It's the same story regarding when Ice Cream Sandwich would turn up on Medfield-powered devices like the San Diego and its brethren. The report also pours cold water on hopes for Clover Trail powered Android gear -- saying that it's pencilled in as a Windows 8-only platform.

The first generation of Intel-powered Android phones has arrived, and while the chip maker doesn't appear to be claiming that its initial efforts are world-beaters, we've been promised a chipset that prioritizes what people want most: capable web browsing, strong camera performance and robust battery life. Although we've sampled plenty of incremental versions of this Medfield tech, Orange UK's San Diego is the first finished device to land for review. Priced at £200 ($308) it joins a large spread of wallet-friendly, entry-level smartphones in Orange's lineup. With a (1024 x 600) 4-inch LCD, 8-megapixel camera with flash, micro-HDMI port and 1GB of RAM, it looks to be a respectable, if middle-of-the-road, Android device. But the focus here lays with the 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z2460 CPU and whether it delivers on those performance and battery life promises. Does Intel have a handle on mobile processors? Is the San Diego, near-identical to Intel's own reference model, going to be attractive enough for buyers? You'll find our verdict after the break.Gallery-158096

Well what do we have here? Yes, it's the Orange San Diego we first saw at Mobile World Congress and it's going on sale in the UK today for £200. This isn't just yet another Android smartphone, but one of the first Medfield-based handsets on the market. We caught this pre-production unit chilling out at the Intel booth here at Computex 2012 and decided to go up close and personal. First impressions? It's thin, light and feels great in the hand thanks to a pleasant soft-touch back. The Gigabyte-made device packs a 4-inch glass-capacitive 1024x600-pixel LCD (that's 300dpi), an 8-megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash, a 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z2460 CPU, 1GB of RAM and 16GB of built-in storage.

While the screen looks decent enough, it falls somewhere in the middle of the pack in terms of viewing angles. The phone features Android 2.3.7 (Gingerbread) and runs most apps from the Google Play store directly via an emulation layer. Performance matched prior benchmarks and was on-par with current mid-range ARM-based Android handsets -- the experience was mostly smooth, but we noticed some lag when scrolling and zooming pages in the web browser. Battery life remains the major outstanding question when it comes to Medfield handsets, so expect more details once we have our very own review unit. In the meantime, check out the gallery below and hit the break for our hands-on video.Gallery-157275